Snapdragon23 site has been here since 12th March 2009

Company [Owners/Founders/Management]

Nick is a highly qualified marine engineer and yacht restorer, with years of cruising and dinghy experience on many craft. He specializes in engines and electronics.

Facts/History

1963 Snapdragon 23 won round britain race, best in class

it was lift keel version

this is boat number 10, built that year

it was fitted out privately, not by the yard in those days

Note, there were 200 SD23 boats made, then production finished and was all for the 26. The MkII boats had aft deck reduced from about 12” to about 4”, for bigger cockpit. Lift keel and the starboard companionway declined in favour of bilge and tri-keel version with central hatch and companionway. Certainly the worst thing about this early model was the lack of headroom inside, and the difficulty in using loo past the mast support, but the low cabin made her less windage and more speed arguably for racing.

Later models had the bunks and cockpit moulded in GRP, and a higher rounded roof, less wood and more plastic.

Earlier models had solid iron keel, later models had loose filled bilges which rusted.

she spent a large part of life in the river stour christchurch with 4 owners, eventually as “VIAN” from vicky and Ian Little who made the cockpit cover.

In 2001 she was neglected by then owner John Harris of NFA bournemouth, and broke loose in storms, was salvaged by Strides with the broke owner giving up.

2002 i bought her as a restoration project, and uprated everything for a trip abroad, spending £2k on equipment alone, and extra to that, rebuilding the inboard VIRE engine, and replacing the centreboard with a new one. furling genoa was added as well as autopilot, digital instuments, GPS, and even laptop chartplotter.

2003 she sailed with crew round the Island, it took us about 18 hours including both legs to and from Christchurch and mooring.

2003 The Snapdragon and Mirage Association, invited me to take over the technical enquiries, but i declined mainly because it was an Essex based comittee, and they would not allow me to publish basic info on the internet freely. The Association has now improved in that respect, and the Technical Officer has always been great assistance to me especially in moral support in the restoration years, where they had no information (because reckless liquidators of Thames marine trashed nearly all the documents, especially the 23’), i was given lots of support and encouragement anyway. Thanks for that, but I always wanted to see one day, a SD23 website - This is it! If you are an owner, you are probably in a club of less than 100 by now, and if you have an early lift-keel, probably only 10 left?

11 July 2004, i sailed her single handed to Cherbourg in F5-6 in 12 hours (60 miles), she returned in lighter winds 2 days later.It was a thrill of a lifetime, and completed my decade long ambition.

September 2004 she cruised the Dorset coast including idyllic brownsea and horrible swanage

2006 she circumnavigated IOW in a fantastic holiday stopping Lymington, Gosport, Bembridge

2009 she was moved to an exposed beutiful mooring in the harbour, because CSC converted the cheap leased club moorings freehold at full market price, in spite of the impending credit crunch, three years earlier than they needed to, thus raising mooring fees over double! (their argument - you will be investing in future generations of people you may never meet). Soonafter she was sold to an elderly man, told many times Summer 2009 to reinforce mooring ropes and comprehensively insure, but he didnt!

Nov 2009 fierce force 10 gales ripped her mooring ropes and broke chains, so she crashed into sea wall in lee neck, and rocks laid by a selfish gardener to protect his garden sea wall, otherwise she would have been saved. 2 days of battering gales ripped the port deck and hull side, breaking the ribs and shattering her bulkheads.

Nov 2009, she was pulled back into deeper water, and towed into local yard for dry Winter storage, which was a 3-day feat in itself and cost about £500.

March 2009, not being comprehensively insured, she returned to me to scrap for her bounty of parts, the hull consigned for a skip.

18th march, finished, and this website, launched yesterday, now filling up as fast as i can sort, check, measure photo, clean and photo the parts.

Nick B.Eng Maritime Technology

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